In the opening match of the FIFA World Cup 2022, both Ecuador and Qatar facing each other at Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor in Qatar. Ecuador and Qatar Contest Begins at 9:30 pm IST.
As one could visualize thousands of football fans are seen watching the match on screens at the Asian Town Cricket Stadium in Doha.
Beats of Bollywood songs and bhangra can be heard from the stadium, signifying that the celebration is still not over.
Match Update
Until the half-time Qatar was 0 and Ecuadorian side scored 2 goals. It was Enner Valencia’s penalty kick and a header that provided Ecuador 2-0 deciding lead. What is lacking from the Qatari side is the significant passes that could materialize into goals. Literally they are struggling hard to find the way to score goals.
As per the analyst, the biggest problem for Qatar is they are not able to get the ball to their two most experienced and creative players, Akram Afif and Hassan Al Haydos, who can make it to the goal post Meanwhile, Mendez is shown the yellow card for scraping his studs down to Afif’s shin.
The Ecuadorian side is dominant and leaving no opening for Qatar for any space in their territory leading to the goal post. With this the first change can be seen in the form of 20-year-old Jeremy Sarmiento of Brighton & Hove Albion who comes on the ground replacing Romario Ibarra. The score is still the same and Ecuador is leading 2-0.
At the 70th minute of the play, Ecuadorians are comfortable with their lead, whereas Qatar side has prevented goals in the second half and would be happy if they would be able to contain Ecuador from any advance further.
AT 71st minute, now its the time for change. Mohammed Waad and Mohammed Muntari have replaced the captain Hassan Alhaydos and Almoez Ali. At 75th minute, Akram Afif had a chance to make a drive from 25 yards, but he could make it over to the post bar.
With this one can conclude that Ecuadorians have cutoff the defense and Qatar is not much more active in the game. If there would be no way back, then it would be the first time in FIFA World Cup History that the host will lose the opening match and not scoring at all. Finally, Qatar has lost the game, loosing to Ecuador. With this Ecuador could win the match 2-0, and it is the first time in 92 years of the World Cup establishment that the host team has lost their opening match and could not score a goal.
Ecuador has won 2-0 with three points to their side in the Group A opening contest.
The Qatar side has the below players for this match:
Qatar (5-3-2): Saad Alsheeb; Pedro Miguel, Boualem Khoukhi, Bassam Hisham, Abdelkarim Hassan, Homam Ahmed; Abdulaziz Hatem, Hassan Alhaydos, Karim Boudiaf; Akram Afif, Almoez Ali. Substitutes: Mohammed Waad, Tarek Salman, Ahmed Alaaeldin, Yousof Hassan, Meshaal Barsham, Ali Assaballa, Mohammed Muntari, Musaab Khidir, Ismail Mohamad, Khalid Muneer, Salem Al Hajri, Assim Madibo, Naif Abdulraheem, Jassem Gaber, Mostafa Tarek Meshaal.
The Ecuador team comprises the below players:
Ecuador (4-4-2): Galindez, A Preciado, Torres, Hincapie, Estupinan; Plata, Mendez, Caicedo, Ibarra; Valencia, Estrada. Substitutes: Arboleda, Cifuentes, Pacho, Gruezo, E Preciado, Ramirez, Arreaga, Mena, Sarmiento, Palacios, Franco, Dominguez, Reasco, Porozo, Rodriguez.
None of the previous 22 host nations lost the men’s #FIFAWorldCup opening match, winning 16 times and drawing 6.
Notably, Qatar, which has won its last four friendlies, will be looking forward to make a winning start before facing the big boys of Group A, which are the Netherlands and Senegal.
Ecuador is tough to deal with. Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo and the experienced Enner Valencia will be tough to break down.
Ecuador coach Gustavo Alfaro had initially criticised FIFA’s move to prepone the match by a day to fit in a grand opening ceremony. But at the end both teams are happy to kick-off the World Cup.
The Qatar vs Ecuador World Cup opening match is being telecasted live on Sports18 and Sports18 HD. The 2022 FIFA World Cup is being live streamed on JioCinema app on Android and well as iOS devices.
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